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Group Formed to Promote Development of Drugs to Treat Schizophrenia

By BiotechDaily International staff writersPosted on 31 May 2016

A group of German drug developers has agreed to collaborate in the search for new therapeutic agents for the treatment of schizophrenia.

Although anti-psychotic medications and psychosocial interventions can effectively reduce symptoms of schizophrenia and improve patients’ lives, there remains a strong need for new drugs truly addressing the causative mechanisms of the disorder and the cognitive impairment that it causes.

Towards this end the German firms Max Planck Innovation GmbH (Munich, Germany) and Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH (Ingleheim, Germany) have signed an agreement providing Boehringer Ingelheim with the option to receive the exclusive rights to a new lead compound for the treatment of schizophrenia to be discovered and developed at the Lead Discovery Center GmbH (Dortmund, Germany).

Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation. LDC exploits transforming innovative research into pharmaceutical applications in close cooperation with academic partners. The LDC sees itself as a “translational drug discovery center,” which paves the way for innovative drugs and therapies for the benefit of the patient.

In the early discovery phase of the project Boehringer Ingelheim will take a seat on the project development team and will pay an option fee. In addition, the company will allocate internal resources to the program and support collaborating partners to strengthen the early development work. Once the project has attained proof-of-concept in relevant in vivo models Boehringer Ingelheim will be able to exclusively license the lead at pre-defined terms for subsequent preclinical and clinical development. Any revenue the LDC may receive from commercialization will be shared with the academic inventors and collaborating institutions.

“Since the LDC’s inception, we have been in close contact with Boehringer Ingelheim, establishing a relationship based on mutual trust over the years. We very much appreciate their expertise and commitment to driving forward innovative therapeutic approaches,” said Dr. Bert Klebl, CEO of the LDC. “It is a great pleasure for us to be launching our first joint project in the field of mental disorders, which we believe is often underestimated. We see strong commercial opportunities here, and there is already a strong line-up of promising projects in this area from our academic network.”